Welcome to James Turner Street | Benefits Street (S1-Ep1) | Channel 4

Analysis

The intentions of the producer for this short clip (of the tv series 'Benefit Street') I believe is to get across how these people live their lives and how it differs from most of their viewers, however the producer is also trying to make money and they are perhaps unintentionally using these people and their lives, and putting them on display for the show-makers gain, unlike similar reality tv programs such as 'Fat Families' this doesn't directly help the people living there except for raising awareness about how they live. In the short clip they use lots of techniques to represent the people living there, such as music, the music used in the beginning of the clip has an air of curiosity to it and is fairly upbeat which I think contrasts to the nature of this program. They have included a narrator to tell the viewers what the show is actually about even though in the short clip most of the people living on the street seem very happy with their situation with the exception of a few scenes. I think the message the show-makers are trying to send is that money isn't everything and these people living on the bare minimum are still happy.